The Running Hare by John Lewis Stempel

The Running Hare is a closely observed study of the wildlife of farmland. The author, having become disenchanted with conventional farming, takes on a field 'Flinders' with consent to farm it chemical free for a year to allow wildflowers to come back and in their turn to attract insects and the birds that feed on them.

The author has an intimate relationship with the land, a life as a farmer and an understanding of how farming can be carried out in harmony with nature, he talks about the importance of untidy corners where nature can be allowed to get on with its own thing. The book includes the author's memories of the farmland wildlife of years gone by (for example: Lapwings once being abundant in farmland, now all too rare a bird and Corncrakes in English farm fields in the 1970s, the Corncrake being a species now restricted to certain remote areas of Scotland.) We are given details of farming methods, close observations of weather and its effects on wildlife. Some of the writing is beautiful, such as the description of Starlings in winter "wearing Winter's starry night on their feathers" though sometimes the author tries too hard: "a mouse-shoal of House Sparrows" just doesn't work for me.

Modern farming methods have not been kind to wildlife, particularly the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides, which have been shown to have been responsible for the decline in species such as the Grey Partridge. Flinders Field is just one small part of the agricultural landscape of the area and not enough to make a large scale difference. A Skylark returns to the field but: 

"...it does not nest in the field of the rising corn. I guess its song fails to travel far enough for a mate to hear it".

We need more farmers to farm in true harmony with nature, but more than that, farmers need support from government to be able to farm in harmony with nature. 

The Running Hare by John Lewis Stempel, published (2016) by Doubleday. 

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 Right now is a pivotal moment for nature and farming. The UK Government is considering how to balance budgets ahead of its Comprehensive Spending Review in June. The farming budget – the biggest pot of funding for nature – is in the firing line. But any cut now would be a disaster for nature and farming. Please consider signing the RSPB's petition to protect funding for farming and nature here. 

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There's always so much to see in nature, particularly in Spring. My latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack blog outlines some of nature's highlights that can be seen in and around Edinburgh at this time of year. You can read it here. 

Cloudy Easter Monday

 We visited Lauriston Farm today, one of the sites I survey for butterflies. The weather hasn't been good enough to survey over the past week or so and, though we thought when we left the flat that the weather might just become good enough, it ultimately wasn't (too cold and overcast).

However, though we didn't see any butterflies, we were very impressed by the birds we saw and heard. I was particularly happy to see Meadow Pipits, not an uncommon bird, but one I rarely see. Two of them were chasing each other round the fields and then one of them flew right up into the air singing then flew down again onto the fence. The Meadow Pipit is well known for this song flight and is not to be confused with the superficially similar looking Skylark, which stays up in the air, singing for long periods of time. We also saw the first Swallows of the year and a small group of Linnets.

The Hawthorn is starting to come into bloom, always a lovely sight at this time of year. 

Cherry Blossoms at Lauriston Castle

 Every year we visit Lauriston Castle at around this time to enjoy the cherry blossom in the Japanese Garden. The trees were just about at their best when we visited yesterday. Here are some photos. 

 

There are plenty of other things to admire at this time of year too. The Weeping Willow by the pond in the Japanese Garden is lovely

as are the Pieris bushes

 Bluebells are in bloom in the grounds of the castle too

and the Norway Maple trees are in bloom 

Hopefully the cherry trees will still be fully in bloom for next week's Sakura Festival at the castle. 

 

haiku

warming seas—
coral reefs weep
with algae

originally published in cattails.  

**

read updates on the state of Australia's Great Barrier Reef here. 

 

Jungle by Patrick Roberts

 

Subtitled How Tropical Forests shaped World History, this is an ambitious history of tropical forests from prehistory to the present. 

The earliest chapters looking at prehistoric tropical forests and how they co-evolved with early animals, including dinosaurs and the first mammals were definitely the best. Later chapters dealing with early human inhabitants of the tropical forests felt too brief and could have been used as the basis for entire books. The later chapters focussed too much on issues that don't seem central to the topic. For example, the details about slavery in the tropics were fascinating and, in themselves, vital to know, but might not have needed to be expanded on so much in a book specifically about forests. I would have been more interested (in the context of rainforests) to know more about the functioning of human societies that have long lived in rainforests. The author makes a very important point that we can learn from these societies, but seems a little naive in the extent to which he thinks we could recreate ancient settlement patterns in the modern world where there is so much population pressure on tropical areas.

A central and vital theme is climate change. The book outlines how the changing prehistoric climate affected rainforests and considers how current, human-made climate change is altering rainforest habitats today, with devastating consequences for wildlife and humans alike. 

Another vital theme is how globalisation affects rainforest environments across the world. Crops such as bananas and coffee, palm oil and chocolate all grow in tropical areas and their cultivation often leads to degradation of vital rainforests. Equally important is the effect that introduced, non-native plants have had on tropical environments.

Initiatives to protect tropical rainforests are vital and are given a good discussion in this book, although I did sometimes feel the overview here was too pessimistic. (I'm pessimistic myself about the future of tropical forests, so it's perhaps unfair of me to hope that the author of this book should be able to offer more optimistic solutions to the issues.) The book ends with a call to action for everyone to do what they can to protect rainforests and to raise awareness, plus a very comprehensive bibliography and references section. 

Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone wanting an overview of the importance of tropical rainforests. The first several chapters in particular.

 Jungle by Patrick Roberts, published (2021) by Penguin. 

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 My short story Dressing My Daughter is now featured in issue 253 of Open Book's Unbound newsletter. You can read the story here and find the questions and writing prompts inspired by the story here. 

Azaleas, Rhododendrons and Hairy Footed Flower Bees

 We visited the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh yesterday, hoping to see the azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom and we were not disappointed!  The gardens have a wide range of species of azaleas and rhododendrons from across the world. Here are photos of just a few of them.

 

 

We were also delighted to see over 30 female Hairy Footed Flower Bees! I've never seen so many of this species of bee before and I've also never seen the females before, which meant we took a while to realise what we were seeing, as they're so different from the males. (To see a comparison of the males and females visit this link).

 

Flow - film review

 

Yesterday, we went to see Flow, the Oscar winning animation from Latvian director Gints Zibalodis. It's a beautiful film focusing on an un-named cat who lives in an empty house that was once inhabited by a sculptor, is swept away in a huge flood and ends up navigating the waters on a boat shared with a labrador, a Secretary bird, a Ring-tailed Lemur and a Capybara. The animals are all voiced by real animals (no twee human voiced dialogue here!) and the characterisations are perfect - the labrador is all over enthusiastic tail wagging and the cat is all aloof independence and curiosity. 

There are no human characters in the story and the background is left deliberately obscure, was the cat's original home empty because the sculptor had died of old age or had a pandemic killed the remaining humans? Whatever the reason, the aloof cat needs to learn to co-operate with the other occupants of the boat if they are to survive. 

Flow looks at issues around climate change and disaster preparedness from a unique point of view and offers images of a post-apocalyptic world where life goes on without humans.

From the wonderfully imagined rainforest environment to the fantastical giant cat sculptures, this is a visually stunning film, with a beautiful soundtrack by the director. It's still showing in selected cinemas in Edinburgh and elsewhere, so do check it out if you've not already seen it. 

You can see a trailer here. 

The film's website is here.

Butterfly Survey on Corstorphine Hill

 For a couple of years now I've been carrying out butterfly surveys at two sites in Edinburgh - Lauriston Farm (the site of Edinburgh's Agro-ecology project) and Corstorphine Hill. There are several people involved so I don't survey every week. Yesterday the weather was just about perfect for a Spring butterfly survey when I visted Corstorphine Hill. It's very early in the butterfly season here in Scotland, so there weren't many butterflies, but I was very happy to get this photo of this Peacock butterfly, which was enjoying the sunshine as much as I was. 

I posted a new article on my Substack blog today, all about helping insects, you can read it here. 

The area of Corstorphine Hill where the butterfly survey transect lies offers beautiful views.

 

the survey transect also includes the lovely walled garden on the hill

 There are a lot of trees on the hill, even outside the wooded areas. The Norway Maples are looking beautiful, one of my favourite trees at this time of year

 

The Sycamores also look beautiful with their fresh young leaves 

I'm hoping to finding lots of butterflies this year. Last year was a very disappointing year for butterflies and I saw very few on my surveys. Butterflies are known to be able to bounce back from a bad year, but many species are sadly in long term decline (though some species are increasing).

You Really Don't Need to Go Far to Find Nature....

We live in a street close to the centre of Edinburgh, the front gardens are very small and there are only a few trees. So although nature is around, we don't generally expect to see anything too uncommon. However, when I took out the recycling this morning, I saw this unusual looking insect on the recycling bin

I recognised it immediately as a plume moth, but didn't know what species it would be. So when I got home, I looked up plume moths on Nature Spot and my photo is good enough for me to be fairly certain this is a Beautiful Plume Moth (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla).

 

Easter Craiglockart Hill and Pond

Yesterday we visited Easter Craiglockart Hill and then walked home via Craiglockart Pond and the Union Canal. 

The hill is currently yellow with the blooming gorse

 

The pond is home to a number of waterbirds

including a pair of  Mute Swans, this is the male in the photo below, in his threat posture (he was chasing a couple of last year's cygnets around the pond)

there are also several Tufted Ducks, this is the male in the photo below, if you look carefully, you can see that the feathers on his face aren't just black, but are iridescent, showing blue and purple in certain angles of light

The photo below shows the female Tufted Duck

There are also a number of Mallards on the pond, we enjoyed watching this pair dabbling for food

We enjoyed walking along the canal, but oddly didn't take any photos on  that part of the walk! 

Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons

 

Groundbreakers was inspired by the author's dissertation into living with wild boar in the Forest of Dean, which lead to an ongoing interest in this native species of the UK, which became extinct in mediaeval times but that has been farmed here since the 1980s and since then has been escaping into the wild. The boar is increasing in population in this country and is thriving across Europe.

This book explores the history of human - boar relationships in the UK, focussing on the Forest of Dean, which is where most of our boars live these days. Historically people hunted boar for food but also respected them as fellow inhabitants of the land. These days the people who live in the areas with Wild Boar populations are having to relearn how to live alongside such a large, now unfamiliar animal. 

The author describes her first encounter with a Wild Boar: "She was smaller and darker than I had expected. Her ears were fluffy and pointed, like those of an elven teddy bear. Her face was grey as if she had plunged it into a long-cold fire. Below ridges so like human eyebrows, her eyes met mine." 

She meets several people who have experience of living alongside boar in this country, some of whom love the boars and some of whom hate them. We're given a decent understanding of both points of view. She also meets people who live alongside boars in other European countries, where they have always been part of the landscape.

The author shows how boar can alter their immediate environment, often to the benefit of other species, for example, when a boar has been digging, insects and earthworms will come to the surface for birds to eat. On the other hand they've been shown to have a detrimental effect on for example adders in Belgium and Hazel Dormice in the UK. 

The book also discusses the need for management of boar, through hunting and potentially reintroducing predators such as lynx. 

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the status of Wild Boar in the UK.

 

Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons, published (2024) by Bloomsbury. 

Firsts for the Year

 I did my weekly patrol of the Dells along the Water of Leith earlier today. Crafty Green Boyfriend came with me as he does when he has a free day (today he was using up his last annual leave before the end of the holiday year!). Everywhere is looking beautiful and spring-like. The Wood Anemones are in bloom

There's just one (expanding) patch of these lovely flowers in the Dells. Meanwhile there seem to be Lesser Celandines everywhere, which is wonderful

It was great to see several insects including a number of queen bumblebees (mostly Buff Tailed Bumblebees) looking for nests. The firsts of the year, referred to in the post title were our first butterfly of the year - this lovely Peacock

and this Dark Edged Bee-fly, 

this insect mimics bees and lays its eggs in bees nests. You can read more about this fascinating insect in this article in the Guardian newspaper's Invertebrate of the Year coverage. 
 

Weekend Walk in Hermitage of Braid

 On Saturday we started our walk at Edinburgh's Blackford Pond. 

We were hoping to see some toads, but weren't lucky with that. No toads and no frogs. We were though very happy to see that the female Teal, that we saw in February, has now been joined by a male! In the picture below the male Teal is the duck on the left with the lovely red and green head, the female is behind him, all brown except for the dash of teal green in her wing and the bird on the right is a male Tufted Duck.

I wonder if the Teal pair will breed on the pond this year? 

We were also happy to see this clump of Marsh Marigolds at the edge of the pond

After walking round the pond, we continued on to Blackford Hill, which is currently vibrant with blooming gorse

and through to the Hermitage of Braid

where Wood Anemone is in bloom 

and Horse Chestnut trees are about to burst into leaf, their branches full of sticky buds

Always a beautiful route to walk, especially at this time of year.